Members of Egypt s armed forces have left to Russia to take part in joint military drills with Russian and Belarusian air troops that start on Tuesday, Egypt s military said in a statement.
Egyptian paratroopers and Russian and Belarusian airborne forces will take part in the military training exercises which run until 29 August, the army said on Tuesday.
The Protectors of Friendship-4 exercises involve light, medium and heavy airdrop of personnel, equipment and vehicles.
Egypt hopes the training will help "enhance the skills of its forces…and unify combat concepts and teamwork," the statement added.
The previous joint military drills between Egypt and Russia, Protectors of Friendship-3, were held in Cairo in October 2018.
Egypt has carried out similar military exercises with a number of other countries over the past few years including the US, France, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Jordan, and Bahrain. These programs are meant to boost military-to-military relationships with armed forces of other countries and exchange experiences with other nations.
In November, armed forces and observers from eight Arab countries met in Egypt for the Arab Shield-1 military, which was dubbed the largest in the region.
Last September, Egypt hosted joint US-Egyptian military drills called Bright Star 2018 in the country s North Coast. Land, naval and air forces from Egypt, the US, Greece, Jordan, the UK, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Italy and France as well as 16 observing countries took part in the drills, and approximately 800 US military service members participated in these exercises for asecond year in a row.
